Radeon RX 6900 XT vs ATI HD 3870 X2

Place in the ranking	912	22
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.04	29.85
Power efficiency	0.77	16.07
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	R680	Navi 21
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	26 January 2008 (16 years ago)	28 October 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$449	$999

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 6900 XT has 74525% better value for money than ATI HD 3870 X2.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	320	5120
Core clock speed	825 MHz	1825 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2250 MHz
Number of transistors	666 million	26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	165 Watt	300 Watt
Texture fill rate	13.20	720.0
Floating-point processing power	0.528 TFLOPS	23.04 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	128
TMUs	16	320
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	80

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	267 mm	267 mm
Width	2-slot	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin	2x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR3	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	16 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	901 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	57.66 GB/s	512.0 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x S-Video	1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	10.1 (10_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	4.1	6.5
OpenGL	3.3	4.6
OpenCL	N/A	2.1
Vulkan	N/A	1.2

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

ATI HD 3870 X2 1.83

RX 6900 XT 69.43
+3694%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

ATI HD 3870 X2 708

RX 6900 XT 26790
+3684%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	4−5 −4500%	184 +4500%
1440p	3−4 −4133%	127 +4133%
4K	2−3 −4150%	85 +4150%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

130−140

+0%

130−140

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	117 +0%	117 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	169 +0%	169 +0%
Battlefield 5	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	170−180 +0%	170−180 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 +0%	230−240 +0%
Hitman 3	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	250−260 +0%	250−260 +0%
Metro Exodus	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	290−300 +0%	290−300 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	279 +0%	279 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	142 +0%	142 +0%
Battlefield 5	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	170−180 +0%	170−180 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 +0%	230−240 +0%
Hitman 3	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	250−260 +0%	250−260 +0%
Metro Exodus	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	290−300 +0%	290−300 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	140−150 +0%	140−150 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	98 +0%	98 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	137 +0%	137 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	130−140 +0%	130−140 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	248 +0%	248 +0%
Hitman 3	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	283 +0%	283 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	290−300 +0%	290−300 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	164 +0%	164 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	121 +0%	121 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

120−130

+0%

120−130

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	160−170 +0%	160−170 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	99 +0%	99 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	109 +0%	109 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	70−75 +0%	70−75 +0%
Far Cry 5	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	270−280 +0%	270−280 +0%
Hitman 3	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	224 +0%	224 +0%
Metro Exodus	117 +0%	117 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	190−200 +0%	190−200 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	230−240 +0%	230−240 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

110−120

+0%

110−120

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70 +0%	65−70 +0%
Hitman 3	83 +0%	83 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Metro Exodus	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	122 +0%	122 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	68 +0%	68 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	66 +0%	66 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Far Cry 5	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	162 +0%	162 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	54 +0%	54 +0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

75−80

+0%

75−80

+0%

This is how ATI HD 3870 X2 and RX 6900 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6900 XT is 4500% faster in 1080p
RX 6900 XT is 4133% faster in 1440p
RX 6900 XT is 4150% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.83	69.43
Recency	26 January 2008	28 October 2020
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	16 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	165 Watt	300 Watt

ATI HD 3870 X2 has 81.8% lower power consumption.

RX 6900 XT, on the other hand, has a 3694% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 3100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 685.7% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 3870 X2 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.